There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.
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The Rockies need to win out to avoid history
The Marlins defeated the Rockies, 8-4, on Wednesday. It’s the Rockies’ fourth loss in a row, but more importantly, their 111th defeat of the season. If you’ve been following Colorado’s saga all year long, then you’re aware that they have played markedly better — but not good — baseball for the past few months. As of right now, their current winning percentage in September — .133 — would be their worst of the entire season for any month, as they are just 2-13 and have already been outscored by 49 runs a little more than halfway through it.
The Rockies will probably avoid having the most losses ever in a single season, as they have 10 games left and would need to lose all of them in order to tie the 2024 White Sox at 121. However, they are now a single loss away from joining the top-10 worst-ever teams by losses, dating back to 1901: there is already a three-way tie for ninth at 112 losses, shared between the 1952 Pirates, 1965 Mets and 2023 Athletics. One more defeat puts the Rockies right there with them.
Except they have another nine games left after that one. Lose 113, and then they’re tied for eighth-worst. Drop 114? The 2019 Tigers say hello. Losing 115 would put them alongside the 1935 Braves and 2018 Orioles in sixth; one more loss would have them alone in fifth, as no one has lost just 116 yet. Losing 117 would have them tied for the fourth-most defeats with the 1916 A’s, and 118 would have them alone in fourth. Getting to 119 puts them with the 2003 Tigers, 120 with the 1962 Mets, and losing all the rest of their games ties them with last year’s White Sox.
That’s quite the range: the only positive outcome, if you can call it that, anyway, would be winning out to avoid at least any inclusion on a future top-10 list of the worst modern teams by losses. Even if they did win out, however, they would have to dominate to do it to avoid any list: after losing by four runs on Wednesday, their run differential for the season is -402. The current worst in that regard, also dating back to 1901, is the 1932 Red Sox… at -345.
Oh, and if the Rockies don’t start winning at least a little bit, they are in danger of appearing on the list of the worst modern teams by winning percentage. They are at .270 at the moment, which would be the eighth-worst ever. If they can get it to .279 before they run out of season, they will at least avoid that much.
Snell has watched the Dodgers bullpen lately
There was just no way Blake Snell was going to let Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts remove him from Wednesday’s game, even if he had walked his last two batters and had already thrown 107 pitches. No, really: Snell refused to come out when Roberts came to get him, and eventually, his manager relented and let him face one more hitter.
It worked.
As noted in yesterday’s Last Night in Baseball — Last Last Night in Baseball? — the Dodgers’ bullpen has been a disaster for most of September. As in, allowing more than twice as many earned runs in half as many innings of work as the starters — Snell made the right call there by not entrusting a 3-run lead to them with runners on, and he got his out, too.
The Dodgers would avoid a sweep, besting the Phillies 5-0.
Red Sox walk it off to even series
The Red Sox have not been sharp lately, dropping two of three to the Yankees over the weekend and then losing 2-1 to the Athletics on Tuesday. It’s bad timing, too, since the Astros are winning again and took over the AL’s second wild card because of it, and while the Guardians just keep on pushing to be included in the postseason picture.
Boston stopped the bleeding at least temporarily on Wednesday with a walk-off win in the 10th. The A’s put Michael Kelly on the mound and had him intentionally walk Nathaniel Lowe to start the inning, then Carlos Narvaez moved both runners over with a sac bunt. Nick Sogard came off of the bench to hit for Ceddanne Rafaela, and put the ball right where he needed to in order to bring Nate Eaton home.
The odds are still in Boston’s favor, as far as getting to the postseason goes — Baseball Reference has them at over 90% probability at the moment — but if they drop a couple more games and Cleveland keeps winning, well, we can see a big swing. As is, they’re 2.5 up on the Guardians, which is simultaneously a considerable lead and not nearly big enough with so little season left.
Machado’s grand slam
The Padres also lost their opener this week, to the struggling Mets. On Wednesday, though, they rebounded, and Manny Machado had a whole lot to do with that. Machado was 3-for-5 on the day, with 4 RBIs, a run, a pair of singles and oh, a grand slam, the 14th of Machado’s career, and his 26th dinger of the year.
This snapped the 2-2 tie in the fifth inning, and the Mets never did make up the difference. While Nick Pivetta didn’t have his best night — he allowed 3 runs in 4.2 innings before the bullpen came in — the Padres’ relief corp was able to limit the damage. In the remaining 3.1 frames, they allowed a lone run, and San Diego would win, 7-4, after Ramon Laureano added a dinger of his own in the ninth as insurance.
Verlander back?
You wouldn’t know it from looking at the win totals — hell, the Giants couldn’t even get Verlander a W on Wednesday, despite his performance and their ultimately winning the game against the Diamondbacks — but Justin Verlander has looked like a much younger version of himself lately. Not just the last couple of starts, either, but over the past two months: over his last 11 games dating back to July 23, Verlander has a 2.17 ERA, is averaging 5.2 innings per start, has struck out 60 batters in 62.1 innings and has whiffed just under three times as many hitters as he’s walked. Despite a 4.99 ERA as late into the season as July 18, Verlander is now at 3.75 — he’s having an above-average season now, and comfortably so, even after adjusting for his pitcher-friendly home park.
On Wednesday, Verlander threw seven shutout innings where he scattered five baserunners. It took the Giants until the 11th inning to score any of their five runs — Arizona’s Brandon Pfadt threw nine scoreless with just one hit and walk allowed each — so no dub for Verlander as said. But the team as a whole needed a win here, credited to anyone: this victory let them avoid a sweep at the hands of Arizona. With the Mets losing, the Giants are just two back for the third wild card, while the Diamondbacks are 1.5 behind New York.
Astros back in first
The Mariners lost and the Astros won, so Houston now finds themselves half-a-game up on Seattle in the AL West. The Mariners don’t actually have to worry all that much about it — the Astros have played one more game in 2025 so far, and they won it. Seattle can catch up easily enough in that regard, they control their own destiny and all that.
The Rangers, though, are who lost to the Astros, and they are in real trouble. It’s September 18, they have just nine games left in the season, and they are now 4.5 back of a wild card spot after Houston swept them. Even Jacob deGrom taking the mound couldn’t turn things around for Texas: he was tagged for 5 runs and 2 homers, while four Houston pitchers worked to limit Texas to all of 2 runs.
The Rangers are now down to single-digit postseason odds, whereas Houston has ratcheted up to a nearly sure thing in the past week. If you’re looking for some drama, though, remember: the Guardians won again. They are still, improbably, in this thing until someone forces them out, and are even going for a sweep of the first-place Tigers on Wednesday afternoon.
Cubs clinched!
The Cubs are officially headed to the postseason for the first time since 2020 — the rest of the wild card picture is still playing itself out, though.
It was party time after, of course. Enjoy it, Chicago, you now have some time to get right before the playoffs.
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